seven and a half week old flock of ten to big for chick coop need to integrate with big birds

[silkymom]

i have a flock of chicks, almoast as big as my adult hens, the coop is to small, they have been cooped right next to my roo and 5 hens for 4 weeks, if my big roo makes the run and hide noise to his hens the chicks hide to, the little roos are trying to crow, we are building a 10 by 12 coop (slowly ) but i have babies in the house ready to go to the chick coop and am ordering more, (lots of requests for eggs and we love the birds, question? if i let them all out together tomarrow and stay with them all day in case of problems, should they all at least return to theit coops at night? as long as they go in anywhere is fine?im out of wire at the moment to try to pen them together, but the hens seem interested in the young birds? thanks

 

[silkymom]

well i put a small fence around the gate for the chicks, and sat with them for 2 hours , they came in and out and scratches grass and had a fun time, thery went in and out, i guess ill let them out tomarow and then the big birds, ill just stay out all day,

 

[azygous]

Sorry no one has replied. Must be a slow day.

I think you're discovering that chicks, when shown an open door, will only venture short distances at first and mainly stick pretty close by. They aren't fools. They suspect there may be dangers out there and they will go back inside at regular intervals. At least that's how mine operate.

I first let my chicks out to free-range around five weeks. They are nine weeks now, and they still stick within view of the coop. The adult chickens will venture a lot farther and some get out of view of the coop.

I think if you just let them handle things at their own pace, they should be fine. As far as putting the chicks with the adults, as long as everyone has plenty of space to run from any aggressiveness, and perches and such to hop up onto to evade bullies, they should be okay.